Connel Bradwell
Victoria, CA
Member since January 31, 2021
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Oh hayyy!
Time moves fast in the mountains & despite this being taken in August, these golden-mantled ground squirrels were ALREADY getting ready for their winter snooze; they do this by caching food & collecting the perfect bedding for a nice long torpor! They will not be awake again until April, so if you're in the Rockies then ? shhhhh, they need their sleep!
Stunning SPANGLED 🌟🦋surprise!
One of the best butterflies I saw in 2020 was the great spangled fritillary (LOVE that name too)! This species was not on my radar at all , how great is it to see something new? BC has our very own subspecies, where the females are a lighter, more yellow colour (like this one) compared to eastern North America! We saw LOADS ? of these big beaut butterflies whilst exploring BC's endangered grasslands ?!
Dazzling little dabbler!
Green-winged teal are the smallest dabbling duck in North America & an absolute JOY ? to see up close at the duck pond! Vancouver Island has a large population of overwintering ducks, most of our lakes & wetland areas are PACKED with ducks ?!
Beauteo visitor from the top of the 🌎 world!
Rough-legged hawk are Arctic predators who spend their summer hunting lemmings on the Canadian tundra, where the sun never sets! So how did we spot this one on a gloomy ☁️ day in BC? Well, they're migratory, travelling south to spend the winter in southern Canada & the US! They're a species I don't see very often so this one was an absolute TREAT! It's incredible to think that this bird could have been rubbing shoulders with POLAR BEARS, then a few weeks later it's looking at little old me!
Bald, Bright and Beautiful
The perception is that they're ugly or gross or creepy which is a total disservice! Even Charles Darwin called them a 'disgusting bird' & I'm just NOT HAVING IT. Vultures are absolute stars of the natural world! Here on Vancouver Island our stars are turkey vultures! They fill a VITAL ecological niche as the ultimate scavengers; cleaning up our ecosystems & stopping disease from spreading. We spotted this vulture up in the tree canopy, which is an unusual place to spot them in this area! It must have been feeding on a dead squirrel we spotted later, and just waiting in the tree for some quiet!